For the past several months we have been working with a 4G provider here in Columbia Missouri, Full Stream technologies. This company offers a wide range of options for 4G connectivity, and we have tested them all (outdoor antenna, mobile hotspots the size of a cell phone, etc.). We’ve been able to use their 4G technology not only for videoconferencing calls but also for streaming to our life-size video center streaming service. This changes the game for us as a videoconferencing dealer. We no longer have to fret, worry and do a lot of free pre-demo work with a customer’s IT department before we perform an on-site demo. If plugging into the local network will not allow us to get the bandwidth, quality of service or ports through the Firewall that we need to perform the demo, we can simply setup the 4G antenna and we are off an running. 2-4 Mb calls work great, although we normally just connect at 1.4 mb for the demos.

I have converted my home Internet service to FullStream (Contact Tech2 (an authorized reseller) if you are interested). We had used another provider for over a decade, but I just couldn’t ever get the upload speed that I needed for videoconferencing.

This allows us to wait to work on configuring the customers network to the time when they become a paying customer. Below is a screen shot of the web app that we use to figure out the coverage area of the various 3G modems for their service and where to point the antenna (if needed). This seems to be a much better option than using ATT or Verizon, which throttles their service. Of course, the only drawback is that we can’t take this equipment to Kansas City or St. Louis and expect it to work there. There is talk of some type of “roaming” for these data only services, but it is not available yet.